Google Now has a tendency to add voice commands without most people noticing. Besides the few listed in-app, Google hides most of its commands, perhaps the most useful ones. For example, Google's voice actions have been integrated and implemented within YouTube, so you can control video playback with your mi... wait, no that's the next update.

To get started, just start playing any video in the YouTube app. Then you can use any of these voice commands, triggered by the "OK Google" keyword, provided you have enabled its detection from any screen:

"Pause" - Pauses the video.

"Play" - Resumes the video.

"Stop" - Stops the video and quits buffering, works exactly like switching to another app and switching back.

"Minimize" - Moves the video to the tiny window at the bottom right.

"Maximize" - Makes the video full screen.

"Exit", "Close player" - Closes the video, but leaves YouTube open.

"Play on...", "Connect to..." - Starts playing the video on another device, choices are "TV", "Chromecast", or "Console." Unfortunately, you can't seem to be able to say the name of the device (such as a Chromecast's name).

"Disconnect from..." - The opposite of the last command, stops playing the video on a remote device.

"Skip ads" - Somewhat self-explanatory.

You may ask yourself, "Why would I waste precious seconds talking to my phone instead of pressing a button?" I can actually think of many uses for these commands. If you're doing something where your hands are tied up, like following a cooking video or a car-repair tutorial, being able to tell the phone to pause or play the video with your voice is helpful. If you're driving and using the YouTube app for music playback, using voice commands for playback control is much safer than looking down at your phone.

We're not sure when exactly these commands started being functional; our best guess is sometime in 2016. Cody had discovered their existence long before, more than a year ago, in a YouTube teardown, but they weren't working then. Some of you may already be using these commands, others may be hearing about them for the first time now, so that's why we think they're worth highlighting again.

The only thing ads do to me is annoy me. They don't serve their intended purpose for me since I don't at all care about brands and all such things, and I never buy things I don't actually need. All of that persuasiveness just simply doesn't work with me. Why waste advertisers' money on somebody who ads don't work with? And before you say about paywalls once again, no, they're not at all required to make money off of every single user. Just let me opt out of all this nonsense altogether already.

Aaron

"...companies are not at all required to make money off of every single user."

But companies are required to make money, or else they won't be companies for long before going bankrupt. So how would you suggest that companies determine which users to monetize?

You're not special. Nobody likes or pay attention to the ads. It's not just you.

The idea behind ads is not to make you purchase the product at that moment. They just want to plant the brand name/product in a corner of your brain so that it pops up next time you're buying something in the same category. So you're still a target customer.

Sunny Oceans

Clearly you haven't heard about marketing you idiot. It's these ads that make everything else free when your little twat of a brain ain't no want no subscription or payment for a product you so shamelessly pirate from a company.

Gregory

They will still break even if they will make money off, say, 1/3 of users. That's not an excuse, and please, don't call people idiots when you're not sure they really are ones. Since when having some critical sense is considered to be a trait of an idiot, you little twat? I've always thought the opposite.

pfmiller

Do you get to watch the YouTube video you want without having to pay for it? If so the ad served its intended purpose for you.

And as other mentioned, the ad works by making you familiar with the brand name. People subconsciously conflate familiarity with trust, so they tend to choose the product with the name they recognize when shopping, even if they don't remember where they know it from.

Gregory

I said that I don't care about brands, because I really don't. I'm so happy I at least have AdBlock on my computer so I can enjoy the internet without ever thinking about those money things. I mean, come on, I'm already blocking ads, so I generate no revenue whatsoever. Why don't just "legalize" ad blocking by offering a way to opt out of ads, for free?

Tav-El

How would they make money, smartass? Look, I want a moneyless society more than anyone, but this is capitalism. I'm not sure how you expect them to just give you shit for free. When you go into McDonald's to flip burgers, do you say to your boss, "nah, don't worry about it. I work for free"? You want free stuff, but I bet you don't want to give away free stuff yourself.

Gregory

Here's the twist: I actually do want to give free stuff myself, and I don't want to make money off of everything that can potentially earn me something; I'm not greedy. Yes people do need to pay the bills and such, but that hardly makes an excuse to make more money than one can spend.

But the point of that comment is, they already are not making any money off me, so that wouldn't change if they introduce an official way to opt out of ads. I'm pretty sure that even with this thing in place, they will still make enough money to at least break even.

Tav-El

What you're suggesting is laughably naïve. Can you imagine the logistics that would go into supporting an ad campaign that makes "enough money to at least break even?" No one is going to just try to get by. That's what poor people do, and it fucking sucks. Everybody's going to be making as much money as they possibly can, to live as well as they possibly can, and I legitimately don't believe that you're any different. You're also not really listening to other posters who are trying to tell you that companies ARE making money off of you.

Do you buy laundry detergent? If you don't, let's just say you do for the sake of this scenario. You say you don't care about brands, but your subconscious does. When you go to the store, your eyes automatically gravitate towards Tide once you reach the detergent aisle, because that's what you know. You've never heard of "DuperClean Detergent" brand, so why the hell would it even cross your mind to grab it? I bet you literally don't even see it, because you've seen commercials for Tide more than anyone else. That's what commercials do, they condition you to recognize their brand so your subconscious mind, which—sorry to burst your bubble, but you actually don't have super powers, and can't actually ignore—will command you to choose that one.

Bottom line: nobody is in the business of just breaking even. PLUS, this method would absolutely TANK THE ECONOMY, and we'd all have to move to the slums. It's all a give and take. That's really all the economy is: I do work for you, you give me money; I give you money, you give me product or service. You thinking it works any other way leads me to believe that you're about nine years old.

Gregory

No I don't want to make as much money as I can. I stop chasing money-making opportunities once I make enough to break even. I sincerely hate everything luxury. And I just want to make this world a better place to live. And that also includes convincing people that greed is evil, because else we'll be stuck in that massive clusterf**k forever.

I don't really remember when was the last time I've seen a commercial. I don't watch TV, I don't listen to radio, and I have an ad blocker in my browser. The only ads I see are the billboards on the street, and I don't really pay attention to them, they're just a part of the urban landscape. And yes, for me, there's absolutely no difference between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. I completely control my decisions, I never do impulse purchases and I've never ever been in debt in my entire life.

Tav-El

Well, congratu-fucking-lations, you've transcended humanity. But for the rest of us stupid mother-fuckers, we need a way to keep our economy going, so this is what we've chosen. Since you're separate from us, trying to change us into your warped perspective of society is insulting, so I would ask you kindly to fuck off. You don't matter. You don't spend money? Then no one cares about you, so your opinion is irrelevant. If you're not going to contribute to society then you have ZERO business commenting on how we run it.

Gregory

If money is the only thing you can contribute to the society besides that 9-to-5 job you hate, I'm really sorry for you.

Ah and yes, having some critical sense while living among greedy people is really great. Too bad you will never experience that.

Tav-El

Work is how we contribute to society since we don't have your superpowers. Funny, I haven't heard any stories of Supergregory flying into burning buildings and saving babies. They must have reported it on another channel.

There's a difference between greed and just not being a completely useless hermit like you. Have fun in your dreamworld. I think I'll keep my mind firmly grasped on reality.

Gregory

May I ask, how exactly did you come to the conclusion that I'm useless?

Tav-El

You don't contribute money to society, and you've not provided me with examples of how else you might contribute, so you're useless. Pretty simple formula. Keep in mind that literally paying for things is only the most obvious way of supporting the economy. It's far more complicated than that, and starts with having a job, ya bum! But I can't expect a nine-year-old hermit to understand.

Gregory

I don't care about economy, and still don't understand why I should. If you're so concerned, I was, for several years, the only developer of an app that is used by some 50 million users. And I had to quit my job because the company had been acquired and had its management changed, so instead of focusing on making great products they focused on making money for the sake of making money.

So, what's your contribution to the society, may I ask now?!

Tav-El

I just work in a mailroom. I'm not some kind of world leader, but I do my part, and I'm trying to do more. You gave up. You're exactly what I thought you were. You just agreed that you don't care about the economy, which sounds like it's fine for you, but if we all did that, this world would end up in chaos. We don't want that, because we have a different perspective. We actually like civilization, and most of us even want others to be happy, and want the world to be better. We're not selfish assholes like you. So again, fuck off.

Gregory

I "gave up" only because the company I worked for stopped being the company I had pleasure to work for. It stopped making the world better, it just joined that clusterfuck of greed. I didn't give up, that acquisition wasn't my fault in any way, it just happened. I made my choice, and I'm happy with it. How I am selfish if I want to contribute things to the society without asking anything in exchange? All you're doing in this conversation is trying to make me blindly accept some "facts" and then fuck off, while I'm at least trying to be somewhat logical.

Tav-El

You're selfish because you're feeding on the money you made from the deal, and now you don't do anything with your life. You just sit on the computer reading news articles. You say you "contribute things to the society without asking anything in exchange" but sitting at home posting comments is decidedly NOT contributing.

Yeah, I'm sure it was real hard for you to passively read my comments without anyone putting a fucking gun to your head. I've had a really terrible day, and I would like to thank you for putting the icing on the cake for absolutely no reason, you fucking cunt. This guy made all the money he needs, so he's set up for life, and now he expects everyone to follow suit even though they haven't made that much money, and just stop working altogether. That makes no sense.

Adam Margeson

and I've never ever been in debt in my entire life.

I remember those days. And then I got a wife and kid. If you can manage that without touching debt (including any credit card whatsoever), then either you're a liar or you're a snobby 0.01% rich kid. Either way, that doesn't pay the bills of the services you're using. I despise advertising, too, but that's how we all get to use all these great services for free. Being an independant thinker that is not influenced by advertising doesn't solve the economic problem.

Gregory

You're not required to have kids. It's all about choice. I chose to be childfree.

Adam Margeson

Even if you don't end up with a child or even a wife, just buying a house is major debt. If you managed to get enough out of your company with enough to buy a house outright, then la de da! Good for you! The rest of us who have to work for a living don't have that option. And before you say, "Rent!" that's just a waste of money.

JasperTree

You can, just pay for youtube red. Its pretty straightforward

Bill DeWall

i actually make a list of every prodicy being advertised in those annoying ads, and then i promise myslef to boycott it

Bill DeWall

>implying that jewtube red is not a paywall
hey i got news for you , youtube functioned just fine without a paywall or ads till the greedy jews sergi brin larry page and eric schmidt bought it and ruined it and now started blocking ABP cause they are greedy F-ing jews who just want to jew everyone into paying them mo shekels for a jewtube red sub
a few months ago i able to get background play on my iphone
and listen to youtube music videos with my phone turned off
now without even updating the app it's all gone and i get no background play ,just pop-ups asking me to sub to jew tube red
youtube has functioned for the last 11 years without having to jew people into a red subscription , these k!kes are just to F-ing greedy

It is not working for me when I say minimize it just gives me the definition of the word "minimize"! LOL

surethom

Thats OK Google for you, only works some of the times or not at all. Roll on google assistance, hopefully it will be way better & more reliable.

Joel Anderson

Chromecast also works from anywhere on the device. For instance, "play Red Hot Chili Peppers on my Chromecast" opens YouTube and starts casting.

Armando Saldierna

How do you get it to choose which chromecast? I have two on my network.

Tj Hariharan

Doesn't for me :(. all it does is give me a link to open the (now) "Google Home" app

C64

Waiting for the first sex doll with OK Google voice control

JasonIvers

I just want them to add 'like this song' for Google Play Music. My car can already pause, play, skip, etc., but I have no way to like some while I'm driving.

distortedloop

All I want from YouTube is a freakin' 10 second back and forward skip button. Trying to rewind a few seconds to catch something you missed is a tedious chore with nothing but that damned slider to work with. I'd settle for a voice command to do that if nothing else.

Josh G

If you hadn't noticed the new feature by now, you can double tap on either side of the player and it will skip 10 seconds.

surethom

Roll on Google assistance / Google Home, I find OK Google not very useful & it seems to always fail. OK Google, "turn off light Bulbs Lifx" works like 20% of the time, & does not work with Philips hue. Also ask so may questions that still just shows a web page.

Anyone know when google assistance will be released?

newboyx

These also work in Google Play Music

Jacob Fulbright

Does it work while casting? Because that would be YUGE!!! I would love to be able to say "Okay Google, pause" instead of fumbling with my phone.

SOMFW

Maybe it's just my POS nexus 6p, but commands while watching YouTube Don't work. Screaming or whispering the mic doesn't function while a video, music etc are playing.
So, saying "OK google" during a YouTube session is an exorcise in futility.
If the video is paused, the commands will work. Because at that point the mic is active.
PS this is my 6th nexus 6p and Everyone exhibited the same mic problems